Nordling here.
This was the hardest end-of-year list I’ve ever written. That’s because this year was so phenomenal, so full of great movies, that making a choice was excruciatingly difficult. At one point, I thought I’d be clever and have three-way ties for each slot in the top 10, but I thought that was a bit too cute, so I decided to instead extend the list to 15. And even then, I cheated a tiny bit, as you will see.
I haven’t seen SELMA, and I won’t until the New Year begins. From what I’ve heard, it’s a film that would probably be on this list had I seen it, and once I do see it I’ll happily write about it. But it’s not on here because I just couldn’t get to it in time. Same goes for a few others this year. I’m also not the kind of person that writes about movies I hated; I’d rather just move onward and not dwell on those.
One note – I feel bad that no documentaries made my list this year. I saw some great ones, listed in the Honorable Mention at the bottom, and I urge you to see them if you can. It’s just that this year, there was so much good stuff that they just didn’t make it in there. Without further blah-blah, here’s my list. I hope you had as good a time at the movies this year as I did. Hell of a movie year, and considering next year’s going to be The Year Geek Broke, I’m glad we got some wonderful movies to see before the Internet finally explodes like the Death Star.
15. THE BABADOOK
The best horror films come from what we know and feel every day. Horror subverts and corrupts our common experiences, and makes what is familiar suddenly terrifying and alien. Jennifer Kent’s wonderful film manages to find the fear in a mother and her son dealing with grief and loss, and does so in a unique way. THE BABADOOK scares us precisely because we care about these people. We don’t want to see them put into the grinder, but as the intensity increases, we fear for them. Essie Davis turns in a performance of such power that can provoke the audience to tears even as they wrap their arms around themselves in dread.
14. BLUE RUIN
BLUE RUIN didn’t invent the revenge story, but it has shaped it into a rusty, jagged blade that can just as easily cut the person wielding it. Macon Blair is phenomenal as the spiritually wounded homeless man who discovers his purpose when the man who destroyed his family is released from prison. Jeremy Saulnier has crafted a film that feels effortless, and builds the intensity so meticulously that when the twists and the shocks come, they feel earned. Sometimes even the simplest stories, with a strong foundation, can become revelatory, and I can’t wait to see Saulnier’s follow-up. If THE GREEN ROOM is as good as BLUE RUIN, let’s hope that Saulnier keeps going down the colors of the rainbow.
13. THE LEGO MOVIE
Let us celebrate imagination, and the dreamers of the dream. THE LEGO MOVIE is both a 90+ minute toy commercial and a joyous exploration of the power of play and invention, and the fact that it does both equally well is testament to the creative abilities of Chris Miller and Philip Lord, who with this and 22 JUMP STREET are a formidable duo of inventiveness, humor, and ingenuity. THE LEGO MOVIE is full of joy and beauty, but when that third act hits the audience, the movie turns from simply entertaining to simply great. Plus, THE LEGO MOVIE has the definitive version of Batman. Period. Adam West? Christian Bale? Michael Keaton? Bow to Lego Batman.
12. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
It’s a rare thing, but I love it when Jim Jarmusch plays in genre storytelling, because we get something as wondrous as a snowflake and just as unique. Jarmusch’s story of vampires in love is anchored by terrific performances from Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, but the film never takes the more familiar road. We luxuriate in these vampires’ presence, and sympathize with their pain. There’s a real ache to the romance here, and we realize just what a cost immortality has – to always be watching, and never taking part in the movement of humanity. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is beautiful, and sad, the music of an extinct bird that we will never get to hear.
11. INHERENT VICE
Of all the films in Paul Thomas Anderson’s catalog, INHERENT VICE may be the most difficult one to crack. In fact, it’s best that you don’t try to crack it at all, but instead ride the waves coming in from the tides of Thomas Pynchon’s story of a zoinked-out detective navigating the complexities of 1970 Los Angeles, a city on the cusp of great change and the last gasp of the anarchic 1960s. It’s funny and even a bit elegiac as INHERENT VICE mourns a time and a way of life now gone. Joaquin Phoenix is our captain, and Doc is one of the best performances of his career. INHERENT VICE is worth it alone to see Josh Brolin attack a frozen banana.
10. LOCKE
Simply put, Tom Hardy’s performance in LOCKE is the best acting I’ve seen this year, and the whole thing’s done in a car. This was a late arrival on the list, as I only saw the movie this week. It was one of those I’d been meaning to get to all year, and I’m glad I fit it in under the radar. Ivan Locke is a man who has made a choice, and he is not the same man at the end of the film. Watching Hardy rage, emote, negotiate, and beg in 90 minutes is as riveting and intense as any summer blockbuster. Perhaps the reason that Hardy doesn’t own the Hollywood universe at this point is because he’s so chameleonic in his role. His disappears into the skin of Ivan Locke in a way that I haven’t seen since, perhaps, Daniel Day-Lewis.
9. THE RAID 2
The best action movie of the year. Gareth Evans leapfrogs over THE RAID to become a great action director, with fight sequences that are stunning to behold. But Evans doesn’t stop there, giving us one of the most energetic car chases in recent memory. If the first RAID was riffing on DIE HARD, this one goes full-on GODFATHER, giving us an epic crime story full of familial intrigue, infighting, and suspense. Iko Uwais is even better as Rama this time out, and the kitchen fight between Rama and the Assassin (Cecep Arif Rahman) is seriously one for the ages.
8. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Wes Anderson has always been a favorite director of mine – he’ll be in the Nordling Hall of Fame for RUSHMORE alone – and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL continues that trend. It’s beautifully shot, even as Anderson plays with aspect ratios, stop-motion animation, and his classic diorama look. But he’s also graced with a performance from Ralph Fiennes as most elegant vulgarian M. Gustave. Gustave’s friendship with Zero (Tony Revolori) forms the emotional backbone of THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, but it’s Anderson’s exploration of manners in a time of strife that gives THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL that feeling of timelessness. Time will tell how this will rank in Wes Anderson’s career, and with this, Anderson’s 8th feature-length film, it feels as if Anderson is just now hitting his stride.
7. SNOWPIERCER
Bong Joon-Ho’s science fiction saga may only take place in one location, but it never feels small because of it. Joon-Ho may inject all sorts of moral and ecological messages in SNOWPIERCER, but the movie simply wouldn’t work if it couldn’t hold our attention, and thankfully not only does SNOWPIERCER have enthralling action sequences, but it also has sterling performances from Chris Evans, John Hurt, Kang Ho-Sung, Tilda Swinton, and Ed Harris. It’s also got a great ending, one that feels true and honest. Science fiction films are at their best when the ideas and the spectacle go hand-in-hand, and 2014 was a banner year for great, thoughtful science fiction. SNOWPIERCER was one of the best of them.
6. THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA
The most beautiful animated film of the year. Isao Takahata’s fairy tale is awash in splendor, color, and wonder. Full of empathy and sorrow, KAGUYA reminds us that our children are our most precious gifts, and while we want what is best for them, we also must allow their beauty to bloom on their own and for them to find their own place in the world and not necessarily occupy the one that we have envisioned for them. There are moments of such grace in THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA, and any parent will find themselves in tears at several moments in the film. This is one of Studio Ghibli’s finest films, and Takahata, one of Studio Ghibli’s finest directors, has outdone himself. Lush, gorgeous, and heartbreaking.
5. FORCE MAJEURE
This spot would have normally been filled with David Fincher’s GONE GIRL, and while I think GONE GIRL is a tremendous achievement, and a delightfully trashy fun examination of the destruction of a marriage, FORCE MAJEURE is a film that examines marriage from a more realistic, focused place. GONE GIRL is an exaggeration; FORCE MAJEURE, for many people, may be the reality. Ruben Ostlund’s film examines the mechanics and the chaos of relationships – can one truly commit themselves 100% to their family? What if the paths of our lives don’t go exactly the way we expected them to? While FORCE MAJEURE can be funny and twisted in all the best ways that black comedies can be, it also asks hard questions of its audience, some of which can’t be answered in the best company. FORCE MAJEURE may not have all the glamour and glitz of GONE GIRL, but it has something more disturbing – cold, hard truth.
4. NIGHTCRAWLER
Lou Bloom may be the most charismatic, cinematic sociopath since Travis Bickle looked into a mirror, and Jake Gyllenhaal plays him with all the slime and cold unblinking nature of a snake looking for his prey. Bloom, like Bickle before him, sees himself as a hero in a world gone mad, and all he needs to do is to document it. He creates nothing, wandering the night for his next tragedy to feed upon. If not for Hardy, I’d say this was the best performance by a lead actor this year (but Hardy really is just that good). NIGHTCRAWLER asks the difficult questions about the media and how much we would rather be entertained than educated, but the movie is really examining an entire generation of people who are more interested in the how of things instead of the whys, consumers instead of creators, for whom “if it bleeds it leads” isn’t so much a tabloid axiom as it is a life principle. Dan Gilroy’s script and direction are flawless, but Robert Elswit’s cinematography elevates NIGHTCRAWLER into one of the best films about Los Angeles ever made. He makes L.A. glow in the way that Michael Mann’s films do - otherworldly and ominous.
3. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Blockbuster cinema done right, and I wouldn’t be surprised if GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY inspires a generation of geeks the way STAR WARS did. If I were a cynical man, I’d say that GUARDIANS is a marvel (heh) of engineering, too eager to please, but there’s such a sense of gee-whiz wonder to the thing that it’s hard to be pessimistic about anything after seeing this movie. It’s the best Marvel movie so far, and one that rewards repeat viewings; the fun of GUARDIANS is infectious, and none of the performances hit a false note. We can debate its place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the fact is that if GUARDIANS didn’t work on its own, it could well have stopped the whole thing (or, more likely, made Marvel make something of a course correction). But the success, both critically and economically, of GUARDIANS ensures that Marvel will make all kinds of different movies in their milieu. Thank you, James Gunn, for the purest geek pleasure of the year.
2. WHIPLASH
J.K. Simmons’ Fletcher may be the most terrifying movie monster of the year, but I also think that anyone who has even considered themselves any kind of artist, be it writer, painter, or musician, didn’t secretly want their own personal Fletcher in their life – someone who pushed them to excel, forced them out of their comfort zone, and in the process helped them create true art. But is that what Fletcher is, or is he simply a sociopath, raging at others’ successes? WHIPLASH, the astonishing second film by Damien Chazelle, is as thrilling as any major tentpole release, and it’s probably the best edited film of the year, cut at a breakneck pace that feels as if we’re inside a piece of music as it flows around and through us. Simmons is amazing, but he’s also helped by Miles Teller as his student/adversary, and although Teller’s work isn’t nearly as showy as Simmons’, Simmons wouldn’t have been as effective without Teller’s assistance. I have the feeling that WHIPLASH is one of those movies that will really take root in the hearts of film fans in the coming years – I’ve seen it three times now, and each time is a revelation – if it’s not the performances of the actors, it’s the power of the filmmaking, the ideas that WHIPLASH tosses off like confetti at a party, that keeps me coming back for more. The final twenty minutes of WHIPLASH is as exhilarating as cinema can get – just charged with power and grace.
1. BOYHOOD
I knew, after I’d seen BOYHOOD at SXSW this year, that there was a strong chance it would be my number 1 of the year, and that was back in March. Not that I didn’t think anything could top it, but BOYHOOD hit me on such a personal level that it would be difficult for me to separate myself from it. BOYHOOD is one of those movies that, like RUSHMORE and E.T. before it, just connects to me like my DNA. The story behind BOYHOOD is as intriguing as the film itself, but I don’t think that having 12 years to craft a story like this made Richard Linklater’s job any easier. In fact, while it looks effortless on screen, I imagine that for Linklater the story was very fluid and hard to pin down, and the project really could have gone badly had things not aligned properly. The film is more than two and a half hours long, and it feels not so much like time passing as it does time remembered, and yet there’s nothing nostalgic about BOYHOOD. There are universal truths to growing up, no matter where or when, and Linklater, with the help of Ellar Coltrane, has managed to capture that ephemeral nature of life. I predict I’ll be revisiting BOYHOOD quite a bit as I get older and gain even more perspective, and I also imagine that there will be future generations of kids who will discover the film and innately relate to it. BOYHOOD wasn’t just some kind of film experiment; it captures a universal moment that I think everyone can relate to.
Also:
WE ARE THE BEST!
I couldn’t finish this list without mentioning this wonderful little film from Lukas Moodysson (based on the graphic novel by his wife Coco Moodysson) about three young girls from Sweden who decide to form a punk band. But WE ARE THE BEST! isn’t interested in whether or not the girls succeed in becoming famous musicians; like BOYHOOD, WE ARE THE BEST! is about the journey, not the destination. Bobo (Mira Barkhammar), Klara (Mira Grosin), and Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) are, like Mason Jr. in BOYHOOD, trying to find their place in the world, and Moodysson’s exploration of that journey makes WE ARE THE BEST! a companion piece to BOYHOOD in that way. When we hit the lovely, sweet conclusion, we realize that these girls can handle what life throws at them, and they will do it with real strength, wit, and power. WE ARE THE BEST! is full of heart and spirit, and the unbreakable bonds of friendship. It’s truly glorious. HATE THE SPORT!
Honorable Mentions: CHEF, CITIZENFOUR, JOHN WICK, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: THE STORY OF AARON SWARTZ, THE CASE AGAINST 8, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, GONE GIRL, FRANK, JODOROWSKY’S DUNE, EDGE OF TOMORROW
Have a Happy New Year, and see you in 2015. Enjoy every movie.
Nordling, out.
